Elessir

Elessir a’Natharion is a character in the Free Court of Seattle series, appearing in both Faerie Blood and Bone Walker. Over 900 years old as of the events of these books, he is a full-blooded Sidhe of the Unseelie Court. His primary talents are music and magic, and the former in particular has made him somewhat ostracized from the Unseelie, for he has a long-running fascination with mortal music. As of the end of Bone Walker, Elessir has settled in Seattle with the sanction of Seattle’s Warders, and has taken over the job of training Kendis Thompson in her magic.

Bio

Fairly early in his lifetime, Elessir became fascinated with mortal music. Its propensity to change and grow along with human cultures, and the emotions and sentiments that fueled mortal compositions, were deeply attractive to him. This lasted clear into the 20th century, when he discovered Elvis Presley. (See below.)

Elessir was once married to the Unseelie mage Melorite, with whom he was fascinated despite her malevolent nature. The two of them together cut a swath across Europe in the 1700’s and 1800’s, when Elessir performed under assumed names on mortal stages. Melorite tolerated mortals being enthralled by the power of Elessir’s singing–to a point.

Prior to the events of Bone Walker, Melorite was put to death by Queen Luciriel of the Unseelie Court, by way of punishment for her ambitions in trying to usurp Luciriel’s power. This led Elessir to want to overthrow the Queen himself–to the point of actually bargaining with Malandor of the Seelie House Kirlath, who promised him assistance in taking Luciriel down if he’d help Malandor capture and sacrifice his half-human, half-fey niece Kendis. Betrayed by Malandor, Elessir switched sides and helped Kendis, the Warders Christopher MacSimidh and Millicent Merriweather, and their friends thwart Malandor’s intentions.

Elessir’s conspiring with the Seelie, however, did not go over well with Luciriel. The Queen extradited him from Seattle, and punished him by forcing the spirit of his dead wife, now transformed into an alokhiu, into his body. Melorite’s spirit consumed Elessir’s magic and came close to killing him, until Luciriel allowed him to escape her custody.

Sick and delirious, Elessir opened a gate back to Seattle, drawn by the memory of Kendis and her friends as a potential source of help. Although initially hostile, Kendis grudgingly took Elessir into her care–only to have Melorite’s spirit escape him and take over her friend Jude instead, and then a young dragon child that gave her access enough power to destroy Seattle and perhaps once more threaten Luciriel herself.

Elessir, restored to his senses, committed himself to helping Kendis and the others defeat Melorite and put her spirit to rest. His efforts earned him Millicent Merriweather’s leave to stay in Seattle, and enough trust from Kendis to ask him to teach her how to properly wield her magic. Now, although he has made no secret of his attraction to Kendis, Elessir is respecting her desire to commit to Christopher instead: “You’ll outlive him. I can wait.”

Musical Skills

Elessir is a superb singer and can play a wide variety of instruments as well, as he’s had several hundred years to discover and master them. He currently favors the guitar, but has a history with the violin as well.

Magical Skills

When his magic is active, Elessir is adept at weaving mental manipulations into his singing–what the Sidhe often refer to as “thrall”. Outside the context of music, he is also capable of using magic offensively, such as to generate lightning-like attacks.

How to Pronounce His Name

Elessir’s first name is pronounced with a long E on the first syllable, and the last syllable should rhyme with “sear”. Therefore, “EE-leh-sear”.

His last name, rendered in Sidhe fashion, means “son of the House Natharion”. The “a” portion at the beginning is pronounced “ah”. The “thar” syllable should rhyme with “fair”. Therefore, “ah-nah-THAIR-ee-un”.

Elessir’s Elvis Act

While I am very fond of describing Elessir as an “Unseelie Elvis impersonator”, he’s not an Elvis impersonator in the sense that most people understand that to mean. That is, he’s not doing it as a career choice–he’s doing it primarily for the lulz, and because, as any self-respecting Unseelie will in all the best tales and legends, he takes great delight in wreaking havoc on unsuspecting mortals. His passing resemblance to a famous mortal singer just gives him ammunition for his campaign of havoc.

For several years after Elvis’ death in 1977, Elessir took particular glee in wandering around the South and seeing how many mortals he could provoke into freaking out. He has bragged to Kendis about nearly starting a riot once he got onto Graceland’s second floor.

Elvis References

Song in Faerie Blood

Elessir’s first appearance in Faerie Blood is when he crashes the Elvis karaoke contest at the Electric Penguin. He comes on camera singing a song the text describes only in passing, but what he’s actually singing is the song “Wild in the Country”, which you can hear here.

Name Origins

Elessir’s name was inspired not only by Aragorn having the name Elessar in The Lord of the Rings, but also by Tom Smith’s filk song “Return of the King, Uh Huh”. One of the very first times I ever heard Tom perform this live, he made a joke about “Elessar Presley”, and really, that’s the core concept of Elessir right there.

Yes, I’ve Seen This Piece of Art

This piece of art keeps getting shared to me on Facebook:

Elvish Presley by CyborgNecromancer on DeviantArt

Which is close to the concept, except for the part where a) Elessir is Unseelie, not a Tolkien elf; and b) that art, while pretty freggin’ awesome, is also dressing the character 70’s-Elvis-style. Elessir does not do 70’s Elvis. He does 50’s Elvis!

Elessir’s Theme Song

Such as in the movie King Creole, which includes what I’ve always considered to be Elessir’s theme song, “Trouble”:

And this performance of “Got a Lot o’ Livin’ to Do” from the movie Loving You shows pretty much the exact outfit that Elessir is often very fond of wearing:

Other Inspirations

His general mischievous temperament comes not only from traditional legends about the more malevolent Sidhe, but also from a couple of characters, Sar and Tsoran, played by my friend Janne back in the day on Two Moons MUSH. Janne was very fond of playing black-haired, blue-eyed, snarky Glider boys, and there’s a little bit of that in Elessir too.